Do recruiting rankings matter? A look at Notre Dame draftees by stars
Despite a smaller yield in 2022, Notre Dame has been a significant contributor to the NFL Draft pool over the last five years, sending 27 players to the league (plus undrafted free agents). That number ranks ninth nationally. For context, Alabama is atop the group with 51 NFL Draft selections in the same time period.
How did that Notre Dame crop rank as recruits?
Over the last three years, the Irish have had 13 former four-star recruits drafted along with three three-star prospects. Safety Alohi Gilman was also selected in the 2020 draft despite being unranked out of high school. Expanding that range to five years, NFL teams have taken a total of 23 four stars out of Notre Dame.
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You’ll notice there are no five star recruits in that count. Linebacker Jaylon Smith was the last former five-star recruit taken in the NFL Draft out of Notre Dame; the Dallas Cowboys selected him in the second round in 2016. (He likely would have gone in the first round if not for a leg injury in Notre Dame’s Fiesta Bowl loss that season.) Smith also was the last draft-eligible five-star recruit Notre Dame signed.
In those last five now-draft eligible classes (2015-19), there were 82 four-star recruits who signed with Notre Dame. Twenty-three were drafted, and that number could increase next season with additional members of the 2018-19 classes, so that is a current mark of 28 percent. In other words, over the last five years, just under one-third of the four-star recruits Notre Dame has signed have ultimately been drafted.
To use Alabama as a standard of comparison once again, the Crimson Tide signed 83 four-star recruits in the same time period, and 28 have been drafted (33.7 percent).
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Due to the lack of five stars, Notre Dame’s numbers are very different from the national stats. Over the last five drafts, there have been a total of 1,284 college football players taken in the draft. 55.8 percent were former five-star recruits, while 21.1 percent had four-star ratings out of high school.
Looking back a bit further…
Since 2000, Notre Dame has had 57 total star-rated draft picks; six have been former five-star recruits (10.5 percent), 44 were four stars (77.2 percent), and seven were three-star prospects out of high school (12.3 percent).
In total, the Irish have signed 12 five-star recruits since 2000, which means they have a 50 percent success rate when it comes to sending them to the NFL.
As far as a state breakdown goes, Notre Dame has had the most success in the Midwest when it comes to producing NFL talent. Illinois is the leader with 11 draft picks since the turn of the century. Ohio (9); Florida and Georgia (8); and California, Indiana and Texas (7) round out the top seven.
Note: All ratings used are On3 Consensus rankings.
